🗽 US History · Colonial America and Revolution

Causes of the American Revolution practice questions

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Answer key with explanations

1. Which of these was a result of the French and Indian War that helped lead Britain to tax the colonies?

   Answer: Britain's government had a large war debt. Britain won the war but ended it with a very large debt, and British leaders wanted the colonies to help pay. France did not take control of the colonies; it lost Canada. The colonies did not declare independence until 1776. Parliament never gave the colonies seats, which was part of the complaint.

2. What did colonists mean by the slogan “no taxation without representation”?

   Answer: They should not be taxed by a Parliament in which they had no elected members. Colonists paid taxes to their own assemblies. They objected to taxes passed by Parliament, where they had no elected members. They did not claim that no one should pay taxes, and the slogan said nothing about land or about Britain paying colonial taxes.

3. Which action did the First Continental Congress take in 1774?

   Answer: It organized a boycott of British goods and sent a petition to the King. The delegates agreed on a boycott of British goods and petitioned King George III to fix their complaints. They did not declare independence, which came in 1776. Only Parliament could repeal the Coercive Acts, and a treaty with France came later.

4. Which statement describes the Sugar Act of 1764?

   Answer: It lowered the tax on molasses, but Britain began to collect it strictly and punish smuggling. The Sugar Act cut the molasses tax but enforced it more strictly. The stamp requirement was the Stamp Act of 1765. The tea law was the Tea Act of 1773. The Appalachian line came from the Proclamation of 1763.

5. Which British action came as a direct response to the Boston Tea Party?

   Answer: The Coercive Acts. Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774 to punish Boston and Massachusetts after the Tea Party of December 1773. The Stamp Act, the Proclamation and the Sugar Act all came earlier, in 1765, 1763 and 1764.

6. Which statement about colonists' opinions before April 1775 is supported by historians?

   Answer: Colonists were divided: some supported resistance, some stayed loyal to Britain, and many were undecided. Colonists held many views. Most protesters in 1765 were asking for their rights as British subjects, not independence. Not everyone supported the Tea Party, and the idea that nearly everyone was loyal until 1775 and then changed all at once also ignores the Patriots and the undecided.

7. Which goods were taxed under the Townshend Acts of 1767?

   Answer: Imported glass, lead, paint, paper and tea. The Townshend Acts taxed goods imported into the colonies, including glass, lead, paint, paper and tea. Newspapers and legal documents were taxed by the Stamp Act. The Townshend Acts did not tax western land or end trade with France.

8. A student writes: “The Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, so Parliament gave up its claim to make laws for the colonies.” Which fact shows the claim is wrong?

   Answer: Parliament passed the Declaratory Act at the time of the repeal, saying it could make laws for the colonies in all cases. On the day it repealed the Stamp Act, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, which said it could make laws for the colonies in all cases. That shows it had not given up the claim. The other three facts are true but come before the repeal or do not show what Parliament claimed.

9. A student says: “The Boston Tea Party happened because the Tea Act raised the tax on tea.” (Remember that the Townshend tax on tea from 1767 was still in force in 1773.) What is the best correction?

   Answer: The Tea Act added no new tax; it let the East India Company sell tea directly, and colonists objected to Parliament's right to tax them and to the company's special privileges. The Tea Act made tea cheaper and left the Townshend tax on tea in place, so it raised no tax. The Stamp Act taxed printed papers, not tea. Boston Harbor was closed after the Tea Party, as part of Britain's answer. The Tea Act, passed in 1773, came before the Tea Party in December 1773.

10. Which list puts these events in the correct order, from earliest to latest?

    Answer: Proclamation of 1763, Stamp Act, Boston Tea Party, First Continental Congress. The Proclamation came in 1763, the Stamp Act in 1765, the Boston Tea Party in December 1773, and the First Continental Congress in 1774. Each of the other lists puts at least one of these out of order.